The present sheet depicts a scene from Vergil’s tale of Aenaeis, which traces the adventures of the Trojan refugee Aeneas through several books. One episode, set in North Africa, relates the tragic romance between the hero and Dido, the Phoenician princess and founder of Carthage. In our image, both figures have fled from a storm provoked by the gods into a cave, where they really fell in love. An angel with a burning torch highlights this union.
This drawing emerged during Felice Giani’s stay in Paris during the years 1812 and 1813. In the 19th century it was bound, along with a group of other sheets with the same technique and format, into an album, which was only taken apart in 2002. In Dr. Anna Ottani Cavani’s opinion1, these sheets represent studies for a fresco cycle that Giani created for his Italian patron, Count Antonio Aldini (1755-1826), to decorate the latter’s villa in Montmorency, north of Paris. Unfortunately, this Italian politician’s luxuriously outfitted country home, which featured one of the most famous gardens in the English style, was destroyed as early as 1815 by Prussian troops. Thus, this drawing cycle alone bears witness to the count’s project.
- A. Ottani Cavani: Felice Giani (1758-1823) e la cultura di fine secolo, Milan 1999